The grocery store by my house just put in a trail mix bar. Great idea. It has everything from nuts and seeds to raisins and dried cranberries, M&Ms and mini chocolate chips to 8 different kinds of granola. It even has a bin for raw unsweetened coconut. Mmmm. For my first customized batch I pretty much added a little of all of the above. It looks like a mess but tastes fantastic.

It occurred to me that I can make my own trail mix bar much the same as when I turned my refrigerator into a salad bar awhile back. I can buy stuff separately and put it in storage containers and then throw together whatever I want. The upfront cost will be greater but in the long run I can certainly do better than six bucks for a 1/4 lb or whatever it is. I will probably start with a couple items like this:

I did this too, but I measured the ingredients out into ziploc bags and thought of them as home-made paleo meal packs. They’re good for travel, although the coconut gets a bit messy on an airplane! Here’s what I included:

Steve’s premade packs are great too. He puts cacao nibs in there – super tasty, gets your chocolate fix, and doesn’t melt. Plus some exotic dried berries. I experimented with making my own because I wanted to adjust the macronutrient ratio to lower carb, higher fat.